Livingston will look to secure their sixth win on the bounce in the Scottish Premiership when they host bottom-of-the-league Ross County at the Almondvale Stadium on Saturday.
However, despite being in the midst of a relegation dogfight, the struggling Staggies have picked up four points in their last two league outings and will be eager to cause an upset in West Lothian.
Match preview
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With 15 points from a possible 15 under new full-time boss David Martindale, Livingston's renaissance appears to be in full bloom.
Surging up the table and scoring for fun, the Lions are also on the hunt for silverware, with a place in the Scottish League Cup final up for grabs later this month.
First things first though, Martindale's men will have to find a way to get the better of Ross County if they want to keep the honeymoon going.
Such a feat will not seem too daunting for Livingston, who bested the Staggies 2-0 in the cup at the Almondvale Stadium just a few weeks ago.
However, fans who have not completely blocked out the days prior to Martindale's formal appointment will recall that the Lions were held to a 1-1 draw when they played Ross County at Victoria Park earlier this season.
Despite the Lions' change in fortunes, Ross County boss John Hughes will undoubtedly look to use this result to inspire his side ahead of the game.
Things are unquestionably tight at the bottom of the league and, although the Staggies are currently rooted to the foot of the table, it is not as if Hughes's men have not turned a corner of their own.
When they beat Hibernian recently, the Staggies ended a 12-match winless run. The team followed this up with a draw against St Johnstone last time out.
Livingston Scottish Premiership form: LWWWWW
Livingston form (all competitions): WWWWWW
Ross County Scottish Premiership form: LLLLWD
Ross County form (all competitions): LLLLWD
Team News
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Despite gearing up for the first of 11 games in just 35 days, Martindale has made it clear that his team selection would not be impacted by their congested schedule.
Of course, Martindale is likely to still be without Alan Lithgow and Keaghan Jacobs, who are both nursing injuries.
Knowing that recruitment could be the key to his side's survival this season, John Hughes bemoaned the latest lockdown restrictions this week, believing that they could negatively impact any activity in the transfer market.
On a more positive note for Hughes, it is thought that Callum Morris and Carl Tremarco could feature on Saturday, however, Ross Stewart's return seems less likely.
Livingston possible starting lineup:
Stryjek; Devlin, Ambrose, Guthrie, Brown; Bartley, Holt, Mullin, Pittman, Sibbald; Robinson
Ross County possible starting lineup:
Laidlaw; Naismith, Watson, Donaldson, Tremarco; Vigurs, Paton, Draper, Kelly, Hylton; Shaw
We say: Livingston 3-0 Ross County
Livingston are looking lean and hungry in this new Martindale era and it is difficult to see how the Staggies plan to emerge from this tie with their pride intact. We are predicting a goal-fest in West Lothian.
Top betting tip
Francis Buchanan
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Livingston win with a probability of 60.83%. A draw had a probability of 23% and a win for Ross County had a probability of 16.13%.
The most likely scoreline for a Livingston win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.94%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (12.26%) and 2-1 (9.52%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.81%), while for a Ross County win it was 0-1 (6.15%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 5.6% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Livingston would win this match.
